It might not be common, but sometimes you need an old plug-in, even in this day and age.
While many sites have made the transition to HTML5 for video on the web, you may run into a site that requires older plug-ins such as the QuickTime 7 web plug-in in order to play some videos. While that plug-in has not been enabled by default since OS X 10.9 Mavericks, you can still enable it if you need to.
How to restore the QuickTime 7 web plug-in on your Mac
The good news is that enabling the plug-in isn’t difficult. Unfortunately, it’s also not intuitive.
- Click Go in the Menu Bar while in Finder.
- Click Go to Folder.
- Type /Library/Internet Plug-ins in the search field.
- Click Go.
- Hold down the Command key (⌘) and double-click the Disabled Plug-ins folder. This will open the folder in a new tab.
- Drag the QuickTime Plugin.plugin and nslQTScriptablePlugin.xpt files from the Disabled Plug-Ins folder to the Internet Plug-ins folder.
- Enter the Administrator username and password if asked to authenticate.
- If your web browser is running, quit it, then open it.
How to disable the QuickTime 7 web plug-in on your Mac
Disabling the plug-in is a simple matter of moving the files back to their original home.
- Click Go in the Menu Bar while in Finder.
- Click Go to Folder.
- Type /Library/Internet Plug-ins in the search field.
- Click Go.
- Drag QuickTime Plugin.plugin and nslQTScriptablePlugin.xpt to the Disabled Plug-ins folder.
- Enter the Administrator username and password if asked to authenticate.
- If your web browser is running, quit it, then open it.
Questions?
Have any more questions about enabling the QuickTime plug-in, or have any other old plug-ins you want to use? Let us know down in the comments.